Week Before Christmas

We didn’t do much this past week that is worth special note. Ongoing projects received some attention as did a few household repairs and garage updates.

Pam finished sending holiday cards and we have received a few in the mail. It’s always good to read the newsletters (when included) and catch up with the goings-on of our friends and relatives.

I ripped some lumber and put up my first section of pegboard in the garage. (The lumber strips are spacers that separate the pegboard from the wall.) It is good to have various tools once again handy and have a dedicated spot to store them. Besides, this is one of my planned “winter” projects and gives me something to do outside the house.

I purchased a free-standing shelf unit for the garage as well. It is time to get some of my lesser-used tools out where I can get at them and these shelves will help. At some point I will buy a couple more, but one unit was all Walmart had on hand this trip.

While unpacking some tools to hang on the pegboard, I found a box containing several packages of slides taken in Colorado between 2003 and 2005. Digging into my old photo supplies, I was able to put these into pages of transparent sleeves. This makes the slides easier to sort and view. The photos in this week’s Archive are scans from this batch.

The water supply line going into the upstairs toilet developed a leak and needed repair. Unfortunately the install had been done with “oddball” parts instead of standard water supply lines so it took two trips to the hardware store to find the correct compression fittings needed to affect the repair. The leak is now gone. But we are looking to get a quote from the local plumbing shop to move the toilet away from the outside wall. (So inconvenient to find frozen slush in one’s toilet on a frigid morning.) This was going to be a future project, but the condition of the plumbing and exposed location of the water line have moved it up on the list.

Pam started a sewing project, adding a border to curtains which will be hung in one of the downstairs rooms she will be refurbishing. The home’s windows are taller than standard curtains cover, which means regularly available curtains must be altered. So, a border to extend them is in order. I had a small part in this as Pam told me to go to the soft goods store and find a suitable shade of thread to match the border fabric. There is a Mennonite-run dry goods store a few miles out of town that has many sewing supplies and a good selection of threads. I was able to find an appropriate shade and the work is now progressing.

Last fall, about the time we had our first snow, Pam dug up a couple self-seeding pansy plants that had established themselves near the house and brought the pansies indoors, in a small pot. One pansy bloomed, a small blossom, but it kind of tickled us. Of course, Elmo discovered the pansy on one of his nocturnal paths of destruction and demolished the flower. (At least we have a photo of it.)

During this downtime, a conversation with my friendly lumber yard manager revealed he regularly utilizes a place to send saw blades to be sharpened. I pulled the blade off my mitre saw and added my 60-tooth table saw blade and took them in. Both blades are 10 inch and carbide-tipped, good blades and expensive to replace. Sharpening will cost about $8.00 each. It may be a week or two until they are returned; by then I will be ready to start working on the bay window winter inserts and will have sharp blades to do the cutting.

I don’t often touch on more personal matters, but one of them cropped up recently. We are in the process of settling my mother’s estate and there was a probate hearing this week. My parents had put all their assets in a trust which was revoked when my mother, in 2018, had a guardian appointed by the courts to handle her estate. This means there was no [recent] valid will; the estate ended up in probate.

The court hearing was to determine who should be Personal Representative for the estate. The choice was between the former court-appointed guardian and my brother Jon. I attended by phone and answered a few questions the judge directed to me. After discussions between the guardian’s lawyer and Jon’s attorney, plus the few questions to me and my sister Carol, the judge decided to appoint Jon as the PR.

Another issue was whether to re-instate a will from 1999 that existed before the trust was revoked. This was an easier issue to resolve as the will was consistent with state statues and processes. There were no contested elements so the judge decided to let the previous will stand.

The estate attorney will now be able to file the necessary paperwork with the courts, publish a “request for claims” against the estate, and take care of getting the land titles cleared in preparation to sell them. (Mom still owned two lots located along the Black River in Greenwood when she passed.) Two different buyers had expressed an interest in buying the lots but nothing could go forward until this hearing settled the representative issue. Jon will contact these people and see if there is still interest in purchasing either or both parcels.

The timeline to settle is not short, certainly into 2021, and this hearing advanced the process another step. Generally settlement tasks are routine; I hope they proceed smoothly in this case.

A Christmas Poem

(My apologies to Clement Clarke Moor and his “Visit from St. Nicolas.”)

T-was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The cats and dogs were all snuggled in bed with dreams of cat treats and dog bones stuck in their heads.

Mama in her kerchief, and me in my cap, had just settled in for a long winter’s nap.

When out in the yard there arose such a clatter the dogs jumped from their beds to see what was the matter.

With barking and woofing they ran round the house waking every one, including my spouse.

Out on the lawn there was new fallen snow glistening white beneath the branches and boughs.

From up on the rooftop I hard a strange noise and there was Santa with a sleigh full of toys.

I started to speak but he waved silence and said “2020 was a year that I dread.”

“With angry elections and a pandemic too this past year was a downer, most certainly true.”

“But people rose up, gave each other a hand, and acts of kindness broke out all over the land.”

“The New Year is coming, and we realize friendships and family are the gifts of our lives.“

“The people you love need to know that you care even if you can’t physically be there.” 

Then he jumped in his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle and off they all flew like the down of a thistle.

And I heard him exclaim, as he rode out of site “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.”

Photo Archive

The year was 2005 and Felicity visited us (in Colorado) so we took a road trip to the Maroon Bells wilderness area. This well-known attraction is located near Aspen.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

An unexpected visitor at the outside cat feeding station – an opossum – means I will now be pulling the cat food out of the exterior feeding location every evening. What a surprise to open the access door and have a possum snout peek out at me. Guess I’m lucky it wasn’t a skunk or a coon.

Also, out in the catio, one of the cats has developed a drool, which usually means teeth problems. Assuming I can catch the cat, Zip, he has a vet appointment toward the end of the month. This Iowa vet has obviously not interacted with rescue folks much. For some reason a cat dental was proposed. I don’t care about a feral cat’s dental hygiene, just that he has teeth pulled if needed. Sedation and a tooth extractor would do it. Cat dentals are major surgery and quite expensive. Geez. No good rescue deed goes unpunished. I continue to appreciate the rescue vets who actually worked with me in Colorado.

I’m dreaming of a brown Christmas. So far, so good.

Happy Trails – someday.